Raising a Useless Husband

1. They were both daughters of a minister. The elder sister was a legitimate daughter, born into luxury and adored by their father. The fine clothes and food were hers, as was her glorious reputation in the capital and her handsome, elegant fiancé.

Yu Yanshu had nothing. Born to a maid, she was sent off to a country estate at a young age to fend for herself.

But fate is unpredictable. Her elder sister's fiancé surrendered the city he was defending, and the emperor stripped him of his title and confined him. He became a traitor reviled by everyone. When the news reached the Minister of Rites' residence, the elder sister cried until her eyes were red. The minister's wife held her daughter and railed, "So what if they were engaged? What kind of criminal could deserve my darling girl? If someone has to marry him, let her daughter do it!"

2. A cold father, a meek mother, a broken elder sister, and an unlucky girl... Yu Yanshu was forced to take her sister's place in the marriage and travel far away to Lingzhou.

Her bargain-bin husband, Yue Chongxiao, owned nothing but a shabby house. Wherever he went, people pointed fingers at him. His black clothes had been washed and patched over and over, and he was as wretched as a dog.

If he hadn't had a handsome face to save him, he would have been impossible to look at.

But before Yu Yanshu could look down on Yue Chongxiao, he looked down on her first. "I beg your pardon, but I won't play along with Minister Yu's little charade."

3. The two agreed to be a fake married couple. Yu Yanshu kept busy cultivating medicinal herbs, investing in a medical clinic, and farming her way to wealth. She could earn for herself everything her elder sister had. Meanwhile, Yue Chongxiao, who had said he wanted nothing to do with her, was busy... clinging to her.

He was doglike and shameless, following Yu Yanshu around every day, working hard without complaint, taking scoldings and beatings without protest, and instinctively learning all kinds of ways to act pitiful.

"My best quality is that I listen."

"My wound really hurts."

"Can I sleep in the bed tonight?"

Yu Yanshu could put up with all that for the sake of his face. But the worst part was that he especially liked to bite her at certain times. At last, Yu Yanshu couldn't take it anymore. "Are you a dog?!"

4. Yue Chongxiao was born into a family of generals and had lived in glory. In his first twenty years, he had only one source of trouble: his father had gotten drunk after Minister of Rites Yu Lianshan plied him with wine, and had drunkenly arranged a marriage for him.

At first, Yue Chongxiao accepted his bad luck and thought he could just marry the girl and leave her at home. Who knew that after a defeat brought on by a conspiracy, the entire Yue family would be wiped out, branded as traitors, and he would fall from the emperor's favored son to a rat in the street?

Yue Chongxiao thought he would spend the rest of his life searching for the truth and clearing his name. He never expected a young woman to travel a thousand miles to be at his side, lighting up his world like a luminous pearl.

Reading guide:

1. Both leads are virgins. Happy ending.

2. An imaginary setting, with a little farming.

3. Marriage first, love later. A guide to raising a dog (not really).

Theme: Stay true to yourself